I remain fascinated by evangelical end times fantasies, especially now that it's been nearly 15 years since I left Christianity. Even while I was still inside, it was one of those things that had me saying, "Wait, we actually believe this weird shit?" I imagine Scientologists have a similar experience when they hear about Xenu.
I think you have it backwards. Believers are willing to think their religion is the only sane and rational one, dismissing all the other religions that sound just as kooky.
There's still time, brother! I feel kind of like the biologist and author E.O. Wilson, who was raised as a Southern Baptist. He left the faith, but he says "those old Baptist hymns still bring tears to my eyes."
The last thing I'll probably see before I get thrown into hell is Hitler being welcomed into heaven. It would fit the narrative.
I just recall that my grandfather advised me to focus on the Gospels and not worry about Revelation because it is too confusing. He knew the Bible well enough that he used to invite the JWs inside for friendly debate, and even he never claimed to understand the Book of Revelation.
I've heard of red letter Christians who only study/follow the gospels and the few words of Jesus that are found elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., his appearances to Paul and John).
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Trump is 'The Beast’ from Revelation When I see those who literally worship Trump, who to me does not exemplify Jesus’ teachings, I’m reminded of the following: Revelation 13:5-8. “The Beast had a loudmouth, boastful and blasphemous. It could do anything it wanted for forty-two months. It was permitted to make war on God’s holy people and conquer them. It held absolute sway over all tribes and peoples, tongues and races. Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world’s foundation in the slaughtered Lamb’s Book of Life will worship the Beast.” It does make me wonder, is Trump the Anti-Christ, enshrouded in an attractive golden cloak? Jared Kushner's (Ivanka’s husband and advisor to Trump) father, Charles Kushner, founded Kushner Properties. Their company, who contributed a $100,000 to the Trump campaign in 2016, owns a huge building down the street from Trump Towers (on 5th Avenue in New York). The Kushner' building address is 666, 5th Ave., NY. The “666” number (mark of the beast) is biblically related to the Anti-Christ.
IOW, you got nothing to support the foolish claim that mere negligence resulted in that building being unguarded, nor the specific choice not to employ drones, other than it's convenient to believe that thr kid acted alone...and outsmarted the SS by.... walking in broad daylight, hoisting a long gun up a ladder, planting himself in position for several minutes, and being able to get off--what was it? 8 shots? (....just like it was convenient to believe that a magic bat shat covid on a wet market...that just happened, out of mere coinkidinky, to have been situated in the back yard of Chicom's biowarfare virolab.... or more convenient to dismiss the easily verifiable--and since verified--Hunter Biden laptop, as Russian hoax). Must be nice living in lala land, with the unicorns, and rainbows n lollipops...
I agree with you re. the 9/11 conspiracy theories. But that's entirely different. There still nothing to back up those concoctions. But you've witnessed with your own ears, your government and the media sell you on the crock of shit magic bat/wet market garbage... and the 51 intel ops publicly proclaim that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian ops... ....and now you're presented with a smells like dead fish fairy tale about mere negligence is behind a complete failure to cover a building that 5th graders woulda figured needed to be covered--which was, in fact, used to attempt assassination of this most inconvenient of candidates. Go on and pretend we're the fruitcakes.... I actually understand and get, the value of buying into the official lies. I'm just not down with it. It's garbage, and the poison it yields will be far worse than the purpotrd crap they want to paternalisticly protect your frail sensitivities from.
The problem with the Trump is the beast theory is the beast makes war on the saints. Trump has never done that. He’s listened to Christians. He’s defended Christians. I have heard the theory that the beast is the world’s socio-political system. I am more inclined to that interpretation than the Trump interpretation because we’ve seen socio-political systems wage war against Christians and spill the blood of the saints for a long time. Christians are opposed to some degree by all of the socio-political systems in the world right now. What happened in the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal fits the description of what the Beast does to the Saints in Revelation far better than anything Trump has ever done. Christians were literally executed for their faith in the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal. What happens in China, Iran, and North Korea with the persecution of Christians fits the description of what the Beast does in Revelation in making war against the Saints. The Beast also has the ability to cut people off from buying or selling who don’t take its mark on their forehead (possibly symbolism for thinking) or take it on their hand (possibly symbolism for doing). We see socio-political systems demand fealty that involves thinking in a prescribed way and doing in a prescribed way. And those that don’t think as they are told or do as they are told are punished. In some countries you simply have less career opportunities. In other countries you literally pay with your life. The US socio-political system has become more hostile to Christianity in the past 20 years than it used to be. We could view cancel culture as the rise of this societal dynamic where one must take the mark of the socio-political system on the forehead or the hand to buy or sell in the marketplace. The total progression of this would be you must take the mark of the socio-political system on your forehead and hand or you are killed.
That was exactly my response to the post as well. As much as I love the scriptures, I think I'm skipping the rest of this one.
Lol! So you think buying hook line and sinker into every load of shit your government feeds you, isn't "supporting a conspiracy theory "? How much did you have to suspend disbelief, let alone common sense, to buy into the whopper about the magic bat shitting weaponized covid onto a wet market, that just happened to Miraculously be situated in the back yard of the Chicom's bio weapons lab??? ...or Hunter's laptop being Russian hoax b4 the '20 election, as swore to by 51 respected intel officers (then later, proudly owned as legit, post election...).... Ain't no one can pull anything over on you... But at least you can always claim you're not alone. Fringe benefits of being sheep in da herd, I suppose.
We've been through this before, but as a refresher... I don't do the book of Revs. Beyond my pay grade. I defer to the Church, and leave it at thst. Fwiw ...but props to you and the OP, and whomever else wants to wrestle with that.. particular book of the Bible.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. -Revelation 1:3 I imagine the disciple whom Jesus loved wrote these words because he anticipated people would need to be encouraged to know that reading, listening, and striving to understand the book of Revelation has blessings attached to it. And he wrote it at the beginning to address this point. I laid out earlier in the thread why I believe that blessing applies to people who might approach the book with varying interpretive methods. It is because they have a lot in common, and it is also because the application to our lives here and now is almost identical in all of the different approaches to interpreting the book. I have come around to the view that we should study it, ruminate on it, and meditate on it even if we don’t understand it fully. That is we should try to understand it because of the promise attached to hearing it and obeying it. Also FWIW…the comments I made about the Beast being a socio-political system that is pretty much agreed upon by all of the methods of interpretation. The question is does the Beast refer to some future socio-political system that persecutes the saints? Or does it refer to something that has existed in the world since the days of the early church that exists in the world even right now? Or does it refer to something in the world history that has now passed? In the early church Christians had to burn incense to Caesar and say, “Caesar is Lord” in order to be able to buy and sell in the market place. So, something similar to the beast existed even in the early church. I hold to a mostly futurist view of Revelation, but I did find it edifying to study the amillennial view often associated with Augustine. It helped me to realize the truth of the fact that many of the things spoken of in Revelation, (i.e. persecution, wars, pestilence, false prophets, evil political rulers, etc) have all existed abundantly in the world in the past 2000 years. So, the question is does Revelation record a futuristic intensifying of these things we already see in the world or does it describe what we see in the world around us right now? I respect people who hold all three views.
This is timely for the coming Ezekial 38 & 39 War: Turkey's Erdogan, Hamas Superfan, Threatens to Invade Israel (breitbart.com) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an avowed Islamist and one of the loudest world leaders supporting the Hamas jihadist terror organization, threatened to invade Israel on Sunday. “We must be very strong so that Israel cannot strike Palestine,” Erdogan told the audience at a rally for his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), according to Israel’s i24. “Just like we entered Karabakh and the way we entered Libya, maybe we’ll do the same thing. There’s nothing we can’t do. We have to be strong.” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz replied to Erdogan in a statement comparing him to another genocidal leader, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. “Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein by threatening to attack Israel. He should remember what happened there and how it ended,” Katz advised: Turkey involvement is going from offering treatment for Hamas fighters to proclaiming they are on the verge of becoming an active participant in Gaza for Hamas and against Israel. The nations are lining up that will be involved in the failed attack on Israel: Turkey - publicly announced on 7/28 by Erdogan Russian Muslim volunteers Iran - always ready, wanting, and willing Lebanon - Hezbollah base Egypt - exposed at Rafah border network of tunnels Ethiopia Libya As the US does not have a president and its Israel policy has been turned to anti-Israel/antisemitism by whomever is calling the shots in the Middle East, the US won't be involved to help stop the war. God will intervene to stop these peoples that He is against. Looks like the war will happen before the US presidential election.
